Did you hear about ... ?

So the talk of the town has been Michael Jackson’s death.

I won’t lie, I was glued to the interwebs once I caught wind of the King of Pop’s possible demise.

I was hitting refresh on my browser and had multiple news sites open looking for the latest update on MJ. *That’s Michael Jackson, not Michael Jordan, for the record.

I could hear everyone in my cube-farm-of-an-office chatting, trying to get the latest information about the King. *That’s Michael Jackson, not Elvis.

But as I was clicking refresh and debating if I was going to give-in and credit TMZ.com as a news source, I came to a realization.

Does it really matter?

Not in the slightest.

Michael Jackson was a hell of an entertainer. And I count myself as a fan. He made some timeless music that brought joy, if only for a few minutes at a time, to millions of people. So that, I appreciate. The other stuff, I coulda done without.

But what struck me as I was hitting refresh on Foxnews.com (yes, I was reading Foxnews.com, I am ashamed of myself, too) it dawned on me.

Instead of having multiple browser windows open trying to get the latest what was essentially celebrity gossip, I should be researching the Iranian Elections or examining how the Obama Administration is handing North Korea.

I mean, North Korea has freaking NUKES pointed at the US and a leader who is talking a lot of shit about using them. I think the possibility of nuclear war should be slightly more important than well, Michael Jackson.

Then there’s the little matter of Iran. I have waffled back and forth on this issue, from it’s none of our business, to we should intercede to enact the true will of the Iranian people. But no matter my stance (there may be another post on this topic specifically) democracy is trying to take a big step forward in Iran and it is being stifled mercilessly. Sadly no one knows about it, because TMZ and Perez Hilton aren’t tweeting updates directly to people’s cell phones.

Sigh…

The world lost a great entertainer yesterday.

But I think the world loses a lot more everyday, when people choose to live in ignorance.

Memos, Memos, Everywhere!

It seems that the talk of the beltway here recently has centered-on President Obama’s move to release previously confidential Bush-era memos outlining the Bush Administration’s complacency with the use of questionable possibly torturous interrogation tactics.

Here’s a link to a story outlining what was released by the Obama order.

Many folks worry that releasing such documents will endanger Americans around the globe as there is now proof that America is using the questionable-tactics when interrogating detainees. The fear is that with the release of the memos, tantamount to an admission of guilt, other countries (presumed enemies of America) will retaliate and use similar, if not worse tactics on future American detainees.

While I agree that the admission of guilt does make America look bad on the global stage, I am not willing to make the jump that these memos are the straw that will break the proverbial camel’s back.

Now for the obvious statement of the day-

These memos don’t endanger the well-beings/lives of Americans abroad, the fact that America partook in such heinous actions do.

These memos didn’t water board, sleep-deprive or starve anyone…WE DID.

Whether we release a few memos or not, these still actions took place. And there must be some atonement.

I applaud a gutsy move by the Obama Administration in making these memos public. It is a strong first-step in making things right.

The next step is to make real progess toward preventing such actions from ever taking place again.

The first words out of my mouth the morning of 9/11 were ‘Get used to it.’

And I took a lot of grief for that.

But sadly, history has proven me right. In viewing these memos, you can see why enemies of America would be so outraged by our actions as to facilitate an attack on American soil.

As long as we keep playing the eye-for-an-eye game, we need to expect a sucker punch or two.

These moves by Obama are decisive steps away from the Bush-era ‘cowboy diplomacy’ approach to foreign policy.

We all saw how far Bush got us, maybe it’s time to fess-up and venture down a different path. I am encouraged by what I am seeing.

Here’s hoping Obama can put his money where his mouth is.